Yesterday (04/12) was day 39 in my ultramarathon training plan and was a 22mile run. I was nervous and looking forward to this in equal measure. I have been knocking out decent tempo runs lately and feeling great and strong up to and around 12miles. This was a very different proposition and was the longest run i have done in more than 10 years (i ran the Flora London Marathon in 1997).
So 22miles, cold and dark and after about 30minutes raining too! In my head i was thinking maybe 2:30 or 2:40 for the run. I actually came in in 2:50 with the last 4 miles taking me nearly 40minutes. I really struggled and walked a bit too.
When i got home i was totally drained and pretty exhausted - Mrs B took one look at me and said i looked like well rubbish! A blood test revealed the reason. I was hypo with a blood sugar of 2.9mmol - quite simply i had bonked! I ate a lot of carb rich food immediately and felt a whole lot better.
The lesson here is with regards nutriton and how much i must eat. For the 22miler i had a packet of shotbloks, a gel and that was it - not enough. Next time i will be better prepared and hopefully stronger. My recovery nutritionally and physically was very rapid. A good amount of food and i was fine. Even this morning i was expecting to be a little tender but felt, again, very good.
I was meant to run 10miles today but time kind of ran out on me - i will do it tomorrow morning first thing. That will be around 48miles for the week and another landmark in terms of mileage for me.
My confidence for the Thames Trot is not quite there yet but it is improving. I am learning with every footfall and getting used to my own thoughts while out for hours! Another change is that when i used to cycle and see people running i'd feel sorry for them as they were hardly travelling and not covering much distance.
Yesterday i saw a lot of cyclists and felt sorry for them as running now feels so totally pure and basic an activity that it is almost meditational. A time for emptying the head and considering anything and yet, at the same time, nothing.
My training program is now a web page (how cool is google documents!) 203 miles done, 500'ish to go!
Keep on running...
